Mark T. Smithhttp://www.marktsmith.com
Celebrated American PainterMon, 05 Mar 2018 16:49:46 +0000en-UShourly1Figure Drawinghttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MarkTSmith/~3/djmCl08-5fI/
Tue, 19 Dec 2017 06:09:07 +0000http://www.marktsmith.com/?p=2866The human figure is one of the most challenging forms to master. Because of the complexity of the human body, it makes the perfect subject to test, hone, and renew one’s mastery of drawing. Over …

]]>The human figure is one of the most challenging forms to master. Because of the complexity of the human body, it makes the perfect subject to test, hone, and renew one’s mastery of drawing. Over the years, returning to the same subject matter is a clear way for an artist to gauge his/her skills and benchmark their growth.

In many cases the output created in figure drawing sessions is more about process than a final ” finished” piece of artwork. The act of drawing / creating is from the artist’s perspective the most important fundamental focal point for the session.

In my studio practice I enjoy working with a wide variety of media, on as many different surfaces. All the while chasing that elusive perfect line, one that captures the most complex of forms in the most elegant and simple ways.

]]>This piece of artwork was commissioned by the UK pop reggae band UB40.

This composition was created with a eye on both the past and the future. UB40 has a history dating back many decades and the painting was designed to create an image that would act as a visual timeline for the band – something that would represent continuity of the UB40 experience.

The image features a figure in repose in the center of the composition. This figure in many ways represents the band and its music. The lungs of the figure and its head broadcast an explosion of color skyward. This broadcast interrupts the drone passing through the composition which is further threatened to be struck by a bolt of lighting coming from that same stream. To the direct left of the bolt is the factory town that was the birthplace of UB40 – looking more carefully the viewer can see that on the same line as the factory are two city walls – which the figure has grown outside of, mirroring the growth and global fame of the band and its music.

Dominating the sky is a lion who’s mane is formed from both fire and the night sky who is directly connected to the beating heart of the figure in the center and has a hand gentling supporting the figure at the bottom of the composition.

Scattered among the composition are elements from the past – UB40’s music is inexorably linked to specific time periods – 8 bit clouds, an atari controller, a boom box, a radio broadcast antennae and the text “broader than broadway” – a reference to the song of the same title on the album. Finally, on the bottom left of the composition there is the band’s mascot Rocky.

]]>http://www.marktsmith.com/2017/12/ub40-album-cover-commission-2017/feed/0http://www.marktsmith.com/2017/12/ub40-album-cover-commission-2017/Key West Smuggler 2017http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MarkTSmith/~3/_dY-qe5HljU/
Wed, 10 May 2017 00:29:21 +0000http://www.marktsmith.com/?p=2831These images were created for a branding campaign featuring my artwork for Key West Smuggler Whiskey and Vodka. All the the images were designed around Key West, nautical and/or smuggler themes. The images were designed …

]]>These images were created for a branding campaign featuring my artwork for Key West Smuggler Whiskey and Vodka. All the the images were designed around Key West, nautical and/or smuggler themes. The images were designed to be bold, clear and easy to read. They will be applied in a variety of different ways – as merchandise, on site promotional material, and as decor for the distillery. These works are part of a large ongoing series in development throughout 2017 and beyond.

As with all commissions, the work progresses from sketch stage to a final painting. The sketch stage featured many designs not exhibited here but that will appear in later rounds for this project. Each sketch was evaluated by the client and the clear favorites were selected to go to the finish stage for this first round. All of the clients comments were incorporated into the final artwork.

A collection of works entitled ” Five Easy Pieces” will be on exhibit at Katsuya for Art Basel week 2016. Located on the oceanfront in trendy South Beach, this luxury hotel was designed by Philippe Starck, who collaborated with rocker Lenny Kravitz. Sophisticated rooms with chandeliers and white decor feature flat-screen TVs, Wi-Fi and iPod docks. Accommodations range from city-view rooms to plush ocean-view penthouses with private terraces.

]]>http://www.marktsmith.com/2016/11/five-easy-pieces/OLYMPIC FLASHBACK / 2008 BEIJING SUMMER GAMEShttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MarkTSmith/~3/ZqXrW-JrWYE/
Fri, 12 Aug 2016 20:00:41 +0000http://www.marktsmith.com/?p=2780This is an excerpt of an article that originally appeared on AIGA website, authored by Steven Heller on the 2008 Olympic poster design created for the United States Olympic team for the Beijing Summer Olympics …

]]>This is an excerpt of an article that originally appeared on AIGA website, authored by Steven Heller on the 2008 Olympic poster design created for the United States Olympic team for the Beijing Summer Olympics of 2008.

Excerpt from the AIGA article authored by Steven Heller:

Heller: What does it mean to be an “official” artist? In the old Soviet Union it meant being sanctioned by the state to produce what the state wanted. In China during the Cultural Revolution it meant adhering to the aesthetic dictates of the government. But as an official 2008 Olympic artist selected by the U.S. Olympic Committee, Mark T. Smith—who has previously created original artwork for Rolling Stone, Absolut Vodka and Chrysler, among others—is responsible for producing a gallery of art to be used as posters and promotional materials for the Summer Games in Beijing. In this case, Smith’s official status allows him the freedom to express himself and interpret this major international event in his own style, with his own imagery. Here, Smith discusses the line he has to toe and the one he refuses to cross.

Heller: Judging from the abstract, symbolic look of your imagery, you seem to have had creative freedom, but how much?

Smith: I had complete freedom to design the image. Because of the consistency and quality of my images, I am always called on to “do what I do”—most commercial projects that I participate in have a larger amount of input in terms of imagery from the client. The image for the Olympics was presented as a sketch; after the approval of the sketch, the final artwork was created, along with a series of related works. The U.S. Olympic Committee approved the artwork without any changes.

Heller: Judging from the abstract, symbolic look of your imagery, you seem to have had creative freedom, but how much?

Smith: I had complete freedom to design the image. Because of the consistency and quality of my images, I am always called on to “do what I do”—most commercial projects that I participate in have a larger amount of input in terms of imagery from the client. The image for the Olympics was presented as a sketch; after the approval of the sketch, the final artwork was created, along with a series of related works. The U.S. Olympic Committee approved the artwork without any changes.

Heller: What do you hope to achieve?

Smith: I have used this commission as a platform to discuss larger societal issues surrounding the Chinese government policies toward Tibet, Darfur, the environment and the impending global integration of China into the world and its markets. However, my artwork has seldom been created with an activist or political agenda—this Olympic piece has neither. This commission comes at a time when China is being examined under the spotlight of international media attention surrounding the games. The intense interest in China’s internal and external policies has fostered an environment where these topics are being discussed frequently. I hope to contribute to the public discussion on these issues.

Heller: Do you believe in some way your work will contribute to the dialogue?

Smith: I believe that the primary purpose of art is to ennoble the public. This ethos is always a large part of my commission selection process. I look for projects that will touch as many people as possible. In addition, I believe that artists have a responsibility to communicate to the public on a wide variety of topics. Being an artist means in a larger sense being a problem-solver. Most artists have an unusual way of looking at problems and challenges. This can be a useful and interesting contribution to a dialogue such as this one. I hope that the artwork can be a small example of how two cultures can be interconnected in a productive and positive way, and that this will lead the viewer to think of other manners to make these cross-cultural connections.

About the Author: Steven Heller, co-chair of the Designer as Author MFA and co-founder of the MFA in Design Criticism at School of Visual Arts, is the author of Merz to Emigre and Beyond: Avant Garde Magazine Design of the Twentieth Century (Phaidon Press), Iron Fists: Branding the Totalitarian State (Phaidon Press) and most recently Design Disasters: Great Designers, Fabulous Failure, and Lessons Learned (Allworth Press). He is also the co-author of New Vintage Type (Thames & Hudson), Becoming a Digital Designer (John Wiley & Co.), Teaching Motion Design (Allworth Press) and more. www.hellerbooks.com

In 1994 I had my very first solo exhibition. That exhibition was entitled “Urban Violence – coming to suburb near you”. The exhibition was a social commentary on the state of the American culture of violence. The exhibition was inspired by the news of the day – America was in the grips of a spirited debate about how to handle the violence and unrest that was the norm in most urban areas in the country. This was a scant two years after the Rodney King police brutality and resultant riots in Los Angeles. In addition, America was yet to come to terms with the advent of the 24 hour news cycle and the impact that this would have culturally on the country. These stories were the fodder of that news cycle after the close of the first Iraq war. The series of works started with one piece that I had hanging in my Flatiron district studio.

“The Best Drive-By of the Year 1993” / Mixed Media on 30×30 inches stretched canvas, 1993.

A group from Very Special Arts – an organization based in Washington DC, came for a tour of my studio in New York City and saw that piece. They requested that I create a series of these works to exhibit in the Capital as part of the lobbying effort to get the Federal Assault Weapons Ban passed. We worked in concert with VSA and Handgun Control Inc to promote the exhibition and to create some cultural momentum to aid in the passage of the law. The show opened in the Summer of 1994 in their Georgetown gallery and remained on exhibit through the summer of that year.

The Federal Assault Weapons Ban was a subsection of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, a United States law that included a prohibition on the manufacture for civilian use of certain semiautomatic firearms it defined as assault weapons, as well as certain ammunition magazines it defined as “large capacity”. The ten year ban passed by Congress on September 13, 1994 followinga close 52-48 vote in the Senate and was signed into law by President Bill Clinton the same day. The ban only applied to weapons manufactured after the date of the ban’s enactment and it expired on September 13, 2004 in accordance with its sunset provision. The law’s provisions provided a mix of minor successes – hiring 100,000 new police officers, introducing community policing – and failures – including increased incarceration that led to prison overcrowding, the elimination of higher education for the inmate population and 60 new death penalty offenses. It was not renewed after it expired or replaced with an amended new law.

I am sorry to say that almost nothing in American cultural landscape changed since that exhibition – the “debate” continues and the progress is minimal. America remains a violent nation.

]]>http://www.marktsmith.com/2016/07/guns-america-2016-flashback-urban-violence-exhibition-1994/Mosquito / The Official Florida State Birdhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MarkTSmith/~3/pDIC1T7UmtA/
Tue, 14 Jun 2016 13:04:51 +0000http://www.marktsmith.com/?p=2744A mosquito-borne virus is prompting worldwide concern because of an alarming connection to a neurological birth disorder and its rapid spread across the globe.

World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan called it an “extraordinary event” …

]]>A mosquito-borne virus is prompting worldwide concern because of an alarming connection to a neurological birth disorder and its rapid spread across the globe.

World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan called it an “extraordinary event” while declaring a public health emergency.

The Zika virus, transmitted by the aggressive Aedes aegypti mosquito, has spread to at least 34 countries and territories. WHO estimates 3 million to 4 million people across the Americas will be infected with the virus in the next year. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning pregnant women against travel to those areas; health officials in several of those countries are telling women to avoid pregnancy — in some cases for up to two years.

The tech-driven revolution is spreading more and more into Americans’ daily lives. This disruption is awakening citizens and unfreezing long-held political and social assumptions. This year the disruption has finally reached the insulated ruling …

The tech-driven revolution is spreading more and more into Americans’ daily lives. This disruption is awakening citizens and unfreezing long-held political and social assumptions. This year the disruption has finally reached the insulated ruling class, and will be the tide that washes this pre-digital generation off of the levers of power, one way or another.

This revolution has impacted the average worker, the production of energy, manufacturing, supply chains, warfare, medicine, ethics, education — everyone. Every citizen has felt the pressure to adapt, evolve and remain relevant – with the exceptions of the ruling class and their wealthy patrons.

Innovation, Creativity, Design Thinking and Agile Methodology are driving the creation of the new business and social eco-systems that will power the 21st century. But the American government remains distracted by 20th Century conflicts and mindsets, like building aircraft carriers and fighter jets in a time of cyber war and drone strikes.

The old system is no longer working. The tumultuous politics of this year show what the ruling class doesn’t want to admit: their patchwork of broken promises and semi-functional infrastructure is dying, and dying increasingly quickly.

The future — our future — is one of collaboration, shared goals, tolerance, and the firm belief in the transformative power of the people, rather than of a country’s elected leaders. It is the only way out short of collapse, but either way a new order is imminent.

]]>http://www.marktsmith.com/2016/05/2016-playing-card-candidate/Linoleum Block Prints / Images for Revealedhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MarkTSmith/~3/d-9ArDU403M/
http://www.marktsmith.com/2016/01/linoleum-block-prints-images-for-revealed/#commentsSat, 09 Jan 2016 17:43:33 +0000http://www.marktsmith.com/?p=2692“Revealed” – This book is an illustrated bible created exclusively for adults. The author is a friend of mine from way way back – Ned Bustard. He requested that the artwork be created in a …

]]>“Revealed” – This book is an illustrated bible created exclusively for adults. The author is a friend of mine from way way back – Ned Bustard. He requested that the artwork be created in a printmaking media. Artists featured in the book included, Albrecht Durer, Rembrandt Van Rijn and numerous accomplished contemporary artists. With bible stories as subject matter, linoleum blocks at the ready and such good company, who could say no! The images are explained in great detail below. Great book – https://www.heartsandmindsbooks.com/order/

Ecclesiastes 9:1–10

Madness in their hearts

But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know; both are before him. It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead. But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun.

Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.

Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.

Blessed Excess

Mark T. Smith | linocut

The artist spotlights the evil, madness, and excesses that consume the children of man—all mindless pursuits that are rendered meaningless in the face of Death. The composition of the print alludes to old maps, but in the upper corner where there should be a jolly anthropomorphic cloud blowing wind, Death is throwing lighting bolts. Another common element of nautical charts is a mermaid. Here she symbolizes the human experience of being “amphibians,” as it says in The Screwtape Letters. That is, humans are both Spirit and Animal. As she swims across the page, the body of the mermaid morphs into good things that are often fouled up or perverted through selfish overindulgence and abuse: Alcohol (the bottle), Sex (the triple-X), Power (the crown), and Work (the V8 engine).

2 Thessalonians 2:1–12

The Man of Lawlessness

Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Parable

Mark T. Smith | linocut

Across a wasteland littered with signs of sin and evil (a pitchfork, skull dice, flames, and XXX) marches the Man of Lawlessness . . . in a pair of cowboy boots. He clearly sees the scales, knows what justice is, and does not do it. He is a man of power and authority—represented in his flaming crown and Caesar-like wreath encircling his head. He is also a man of evil—shown in his devil tail, horns, and pointed beard. But the people are deceived because he is a man who can conjure up “false signs and wonders” and has a pair of angel wings tacked on his back along with a symbol for Jesus painted on his skull. The Man of Lawlessness likely tosses out a few earnest “God bless America”s, and that is all it takes for his followers to be deluded into thinking good is bad and bad is good. God will kill this anti-Christ figure with the breath of his mouth.

]]>Pop NYC International Gallery / One night blast! Pop NYC International is a gallery showing & selling iconic Pop Art, from Keith Haring to Andy Warhol to Jean-Michel Basquiat. The guys at Pop were nice enough at Art Chicago to offer us the opportunity to do a quick “Hello New York City!” exhibition before the wind was out of the economy entirely….. big fun in the face of grim tomorrows. The show was packed to the gils and a damn good time.